West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee, who is presently at loggerheads with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the run up to the state assembly polls, led a ‘padayatra’ in Siliguri on Sunday to protest against the steep hike in the price of LPG cylinders.
Mamata Banerjee was joined by her ministerial colleague Chandrima Bhattacharya and TMC lawmakers Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan besides thousands of party workers and supporters during the ‘padayatra’.
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Several TMC supporters and cadres were seen holding red-colored cardboard replicas of LPG cylinders during the protest march, which began around 2 p.m. from the city’s Darjeeling More.
The West Bengal Chief Minister had prior to the protest march trained guns on the ruling dispensation at the Centre and demanded a reduction in LPG prices.
“BJP is looting people by regularly hiking LPG prices. Women have been hit the hardest & I’m disgusted at Centre’s lack of intent to cut taxes & lessen their burden. In protest, today I’ll be leading an all-women michil at Siliguri. REDUCE LPG PRICES NOW! #IndiaAgainstLPGLoot,” she tweeted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BJP is looting people by regularly hiking LPG prices. Women have been hit the hardest & I’m disgusted at Centre’s lack of intent to cut taxes & lessen their burden. In protest, today I’ll be leading an all women michil at Siliguri. <br><br>REDUCE LPG PRICES NOW! <a href="https://news.abplive.com/news/india/wb-election-2021-veteran-actor-mithun-chakraborty-joins-bjp-in-pm-narendra-modi-s-brigade-ground-rally-1447363">#IndiaAgainstLPGLoot</a></p>— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) <a >March 7, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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The TMC supremo’s ‘padyatra’ against the hike in LPG prices in Siliguri assumes significance as it coincided with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election rally at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground where he took on the ruling party in West Bengal for “betraying trust of the people” and promised “sonar Bangla” if the BJP comes to power.
Mamata Banerjee’s ‘padayatra’ is seen by many as a counter to the Prime Minister’s rally ahead of the high-voltage eight-phased assembly elections in West Bengal beginning March 27 and ending on April 29.
Voting for the 294-member West Bengal Assembly will be held on May 2.